A Memory is Worth a Million Pictures

Genealogy Tips by Jeannette Holland Austin

There are memories simply too precious to forget. Too soon do little children grow up and forget the elder relatives. Yet, there remains dribbles of information we knew about our family members that is still in the conclave of our thoughts. Older citizens review these moments in the declining years, preferring the good times. I see my sisters as they were when we were playing in the yard, but somewhere in that memory lies a fleeting picture of my dear old great-grandmother asking me to thread a needle. One day I found a vaguely familiar face on an old black and white photograph and it came to me! That was her! I had traced her lineage back several hundred years, but not remember her. Now I could. What a pleasure it is to find her alas! It seems that just about everyone has a batch of unidentified photos. Now that the internet is our photo album, we can post these precious memories for future generations. Neat! Remember Me

Railroad Dollars: The Macon and Brunswick Railroad

Railroad Dollar During the 1860s the railroad printed its own dollar as a means of the payment of wages. Male railroad workers were paid between $1 and $5 per day. Immigrants were paid the lowest amount. During 1922 it was reported that the railroads did a large volume of business on a narrow traffic margin.

Eastman Depot

A railroad station stop of the Macon and Brunswick Railroad was constructed in 1869. The president of the railroad was William Pitt Eastman, an industrialist. When Eastman visited the new stop, he purchased land on both sides of the line and laid out a town. William Dodge, president of the Georgia Land and Lumber Company, funded the building of a courthouse in exchange for the county being named after him.